Hebrews Gives Us Something Better: "A Better Absolution" based on Hebrews 1:3b

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Having lived in Ocheyedan, Iowa, for eight years now, I hear about people who are regularly going to other places. Des Moines, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Sioux Falls, and Indianapolis to name a few. I have been to all those places to visit , but I think Ocheyedan is a better place to live. Less crime, less traffic, and less headaches.

There are some trips that are good to avoid. Orlando, Florida in the heat of the summer is the land of high humidity. Phoenix, Arizona in the summer time is regularly over 100 degrees.

There is one more trip that you want to avoid. Not a trip to a big city. A trip full of pity. That trip to stay far away from is a “guilt trip.” Going on a guilt trip is one of the best ways to make yourself and the people around you miserable.

We are continuing our sermon series on the Book of Hebrews, Something Better. Last week we considered how we have a better glory than in Old Testament times. Today we will look at the second part of Hebrews 1:3, “After making purification for sins, (Jesus) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Today we will consider how we have a better purification or absolution than in the Old Testament times.

Sadly, we are all impure. We are all sinners. We are all selfish and self-centered. We all get ourselves into and out of mess after mess in life. We like to put down others for their faults, but we all have our own faults, too. We have all offended a holy and righteous and perfect God. We have all deeply hurt others by our unkind words and actions. We have all disappointed those around us. But Jesus provided purification for our sins. Still, many of us go on guilt trips about our past problems. That is not very smart.

After a while our guilt trip gets old and someone says, “You need to bury your guilt.” That sounds like a good idea. There is a problem with that advice though. Trying to bury our guilt does not work. When we try to bury our guilt, that guilt comes back to haunt us. Usually late at night, when we are trying to sleep, that guilt comes back.

So the next thing we do is blame others for our guilt. We accuse others so that we can excuse ourselves. Accuse, excuse. Accuse, excuse. A lot of people live that way. We might say, “I do not care what I did wrong. I cannot help doing that. So everything is your fault.” We blame our parents, our spouses, our jobs, and our government.

Some bury. Others blame. And some of us beat. Beat who? We beat up ourselves. We take the role of judge, jury, and prosecuting attorney. The verdict? Everyday the verdict is “guilty, guilty, guilty.” The sentence? Life in prison with our guilt.

We show ourselves no mercy. We say to ourselves, “You stupid idiot. You deserve all this. You made bad choices and now you have to live with them and suffer for them.” We do not know when to stop. We do not know how to say, “Enough is enough.”

Is a guilt trip costly? Yes, a guilt trip is the most costly trip we can take. A guilt trip gives us headaches. A guilt trip takes our peace away. A guilt trip costs us relationships with others.

Can a guilt trip hurt our health? Lots of people are in hospitals today, because they do not know what to do with their guilt. If we are living under a load of guilt, our body can be hit with headaches and stomach aches. Guilt can contribute to heart diseases and other diseases of the body. A long-term guilt trip will cost us everything in the end.

Are you ready to get off the guilt trip? Stop trying to bury your guilt. Stop blaming others for your guilt. Quit beating yourself up with guilt over all the things that have gone wrong in the past that you cannot change anyway.

Instead, try this. Admit your guilt. Own up to your guilt. There is a right way and wrong way to admit our guilt to God. We do not have to beg. We do not have to say, “Pretty please, God, forgive me.”

We do not have to bargain with God. We do not need to say, “If you forgive me this time, then I promise I will read through the entire Old Testament of the Bible and I will not skip over the genealogies and I will give half my money to the church.”

We certainly do not need to bribe God. We do not need to say, “Lord, this is what I promise to do. I will never commit that same wrong ever again, if you will forgive this one time.”

Beg, bargain, and bribe. Those are all the wrong ways to admit our guilt. So what is the right way to admit our guilt?

Humbly say, “God, I was wrong. I sinned against You. I did what I did because I wanted to do that and I am selfish and sinful.”

Why do that? Jesus does not want to rub things in. Jesus wants to rub things out. Hebrews 1:3 tells us, “After making purification for sins, (Jesus) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Try to think of things this way. Think of a water purification plant. The purification plant removes the stinking, ugly, and harmful things from polluted water. A water purification plant produces water that is clean and fresh and sparkling. This is like what Jesus does for us. Jesus takes our stinking sewer of sin to the cross. Then what happens? We become clean and fresh and sparkling and pure!

Believe God’s Word in Hebrews 1:3, “After making purification for sins, (Jesus) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” In the OT there were all kinds of offerings. Goat offerings. Lamb offerings. Ram offerings. Bull offerings. Peace offerings. Atonement offerings. Whole burnt offerings. Wave offerings. Freewill offerings. And they provided purification. But they had to be repeated over and over again—every day, every week, every month, every year!

After Jesus Christ offered His own blood to purify us, “He sat down.” What’s that mean? That means He was done. He was finished. In fact, the expression, “once for all” appears in 5 times in Hebrews—5 times! Jesus Christ takes all guilt and sin away, “once for all.” “He sat down!”

In the Old Testament Israelites were never allowed to drink what? They were never allowed to drink blood. Leviticus 17:10 tells us about God’s warning, “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.” And so what is, for any Jew, the most amazing words that Jesus ever spoke? “Take, drink, this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sin.” This blood is not sprinkled on us outwardly. That was the Old Testament. Jesus Christ gives blood that we drink inwardly and we are forgiven and purified and absolutely absolved! Believe that truth!

Confess your guilt. Hebrews 1:3 lets us know, “After making purification for sins, (Jesus) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Sitting at the Father’s right hand means that Jesus has defeated every enemy that would have us continue on our costly guilt trip. The chief enemy that Christ has defeated is Satan, whose name literally means “accuser.” Our past is also defeated, with all the scolding and all the shaming. Jesus Christ serves as our Advocate and Defender as he sits at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 7:25 tells us, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Confess your guilt and trust in the forgiving Name of Jesus.

The 1998 movie Titanic had a song called, “Never an Absolution.” The song was played when the owner of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, was on a lifeboat, slowly drifting away from the sinking ship. History tells us that Ismay stayed on that guilt trip the rest of his life.

But we don’t have to stay on a guilt trip all our days. Instead, we can admit our guilt. Believe God’s Word. Confess our need for help. Get off the guilt trip and do what? Get on board the grace trip. And where does that take us? The grace trip takes us straight to the little town of Bethlehem. A unique infant boy was born there for you and me and all people. Mary gave birth to the One and Only Son of God. True Man and True God all in one. “You will call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

(Note: This sermon is a reworking of a sermon by Dr. Reed Lessing.)